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The other day I was talking to someone who told me he felt a lot of pressure because his older sister was a great student and went to med school etc and I was like yeah no for sure same here

High agency is believing you can learn new things and work hard to solve tough problems no matter how complicated. Low agency is sitting around making fun of people who try.

People can work surprisingly hard without burnout as long as they feel like they’re winning.

Someone with 4 kids recently told me the joke "going from 3 to 4 kids is like imagine you're in the ocean drowning, and then someone comes by in a boat and reaches out their hand to you and gives you a baby"

It’s crazy to me how most of us are now going to spend the majority of our career working remotely, and if it hadn’t been for the pandemic we’d have all just kept going to offices for 8+ hours every day. Makes you wonder what else we’re all doing just because everyone else is.

Events like the holocaust become possible when the idea that Jews shouldn’t defend themselves against terrorism becomes normalized. Nobody wants innocent people to be killed. If you’re calling for a ceasefire, ask yourself: why that instead of calling for hamas to surrender? Don’t you remember what they did less than a month ago?

An often forgotten secret hack in business is that you can just ask for exactly what you want directly and politely and not play 3d chess about it.

Most people don’t realize just how valuable it is to have a company that retains people for 4 years on average instead of 2. People crush it in years 3 and 4.

To all the people gleefully hating today, please know you’re betting against the wrong guy.

Sam has been sending stuck startups money today with no docs, just saying “send me back whatever you can whenever you can”. What a legend 🥲

Founder: We’re making important software that every business needs. VC: Yeah I just don’t think this can get big. We’ll pass. Founder: We’ll add some AI. VC: Interesting… Founder: System of record. VC: We’re in. Founder: Scooters. VC: We’ll give you a hundred million.

The most dangerous person to have on a team is the person who is persuasive, confident, vocal, opinionated, charismatic...and who just happens to be wrong a lot.

World: To have a successful WFH day, start your day with a shower, coffee, go outside, get some exercise. Have a nice morning and treat it like a normal workday. Me: Wakes up 4 minutes before my first call.

I think this is a brilliant observation from Lulu: people root for you when they think you deserve more than you've got, and root against you when it's the opposite. It captures an essential element of good comms...how can you help people think you're underrated rather than overrated? People are very motivated to correct the record in either direction, or as Lulu puts it, "We're all kind of reputational karens."

The main forms of luck in life as an adult are having an amazing partner, loving your work, and having your health. Everything else is accoutrements.

What’s something your parents did that you think was important for your development?

What’s a book so good you’ve read it twice?

Events like the holocaust become possible when the idea that Jews shouldn’t defend themselves against terrorism becomes normalized. Nobody wants innocent people to be killed. If you’re calling for a ceasefire, ask yourself: why that instead of calling for hamas to surrender? Don’t you remember what they did less than a month ago?

High agency is believing you can learn new things and work hard to solve tough problems no matter how complicated. Low agency is sitting around making fun of people who try.

What's the book or article that's had the biggest impact on how you think about management and leadership?

I might be too much of an optimist but I just don’t buy the permanent underclass thing. I just think no matter how smart AI gets, there’s no way a motivated person will wake up each day and be unable to contribute to society.

People can work surprisingly hard without burnout as long as they feel like they’re winning.

I’m really excited to share that I’m joining Benchmark. The past two years as a full time investor have been the most rewarding of my career. I really love venture capital, which is not something I ever imagined I’d say when I was kid, but here we are. I love new ideas and being part of a team with a mission. I love getting to be there for people who are struggling towards goals they really care about. I love learning from people who are better CEOs than I ever was. I love the texture of the work, the competition, and the way the job lets you invest in relationships. I love it so much that I’ve even turned into a little venture nerd with a podcast who goes around harassing great investors and founders, trying to learn as much as I can as fast as possible. I’ve certainly learned what I care most about, and what kind of investor I want to be. What I’ve realized is that I love investing at the Series A, when there’s enough going on that an investor can be useful but not so much that you can’t have an impact. I think there are many amazing ways to practice venture, it’s just the way that most speaks to me. And as I came to realize that, I started to think about how to best set myself up to do that craft as well as possible. It became clear to me there is nowhere better for this than Benchmark; the way they’re structured, their principles, their overall approach to investing, and their track record all create an environment that I believe will let me do my best work as an investor and help founders the most I possibly can. As I’ve gotten to know the team at Benchmark I’ve come to admire so much about each of them. Peter is truly playing his own game. A lot of what he says sounds like poetry at first, but as the ideas roll around in your head for a while you realize how much depth they have. I first heard about Eric many years ago from my friend Saji at Benchling while I was building Lattice, who described him as the most amazing board member and attributed him with a lot of the company’s success. That’s the kind of partner I want to be one day. Chetan is brilliant and truly thinks for himself; I’ve realized over time what a courageous guy he is. And then there’s my friend Ev, whose skills complement mine and who I just love to be around. I can’t wait to have him as a partner in crime. When given the chance to work with this group I just knew I had to go. One of my motivating north stars with Alt Capital was to build a firm and be a partner that I most would have wanted as an entrepreneur. Although I haven’t gotten everywhere I want to be yet, I’m proud of the work so far. And now I’m excited to build on that work at Benchmark, where I hope to increase my rate of learning and get armed with the power of a partnership so I can help founders reach their dreams even more. Thank you to the companies who’ve let me invest with them at Alt Cap. I’m keeping all my board seats and supporting everyone just the same as before. Thank you to the LPs who’ve backed me as well. I am so excited about the portfolio we have and am grateful I can stick with all those companies. And finally thank you to my teammates, Bala, Vivek, and Nate. Bala took a bet on me and started investing with me before it was remotely obvious, and we’ve been able to grow so much figuring it out together as investors. I credit Nate with helping Alt start feeling like a firm. He joined us from First Round over a year ago and made everything run smoothly. And while Vivek joined just a little while ago, even in the short time we’ve worked together he’s had a meaningful impact on how we think and invest. They’re all joining Benchmark with me. So pumped for this chapter.

There are some good anon accounts, but whenever they start saying spicy stuff a big part of me feels like it's cowardly and they should have the courage to put their name on it if they want to engage seriously on important topics. Am I thinking about it wrong?

Woke up today thinking about how proud I am of Sam. He helped sparked the fire that is driving the economy and OAI is one of the sickest companies of all time. He handles insane pressure with constant integrity. So proud to be his brother. Anyone who bets against him is a fool.

Far left you really gotta chill. You’re losing the middle left and you’re just gonna get trump elected.

Do morning shower people just get into bed dirty and feel okay with that? Seems crazy.

The other day I was talking to someone who told me he felt a lot of pressure because his older sister was a great student and went to med school etc and I was like yeah no for sure same here

The current consensus view is saas is dead...presuming that's right, the next interesting next question is What companies are "safe from ai"? - handling money, regulation - agents on top of company data - most hardware? - maybe systems of record? - security? - marketplaces?

Not only are many of the talented people in American business immigrants, they are also some of the most staunchly patriotic people we have. Being against skilled immigration is a truly idiotic position.

One hill I will die on is that (good) video games are good for kids. They look zoned out but they are thinking and exercising their brains a ton.